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Central Park jogger case
| time = 9–10 p.m. (EDT) | duration = 1 hour | place = Central Park, New York City | coordinates = | also known as = | cause = | first reporter = | filmed by = | participants = | outcome = | reported injuries = Trisha Ellen Meili (and other park-goers) | inquiries = | arrests = | suspects = | accused = Five teenagers, each of whom pleaded not guilty | convicted = All five were convicted in 1990 of various charges | charges = | verdict = guilty; sentences ranged from 5–10 to 5–15 years in prison | note = | convictions = Five convicted teenagers served between 6 and 14 years in prison; four appealed their convictions unsuccessfully. After another man was identified as the perpetrator, in 2002 these five convictions were vacated; the state withdrew the charges. | litigation = The five men sued for discrimination and emotional distress; the city settled in 2014 for $41 million. | website = }} The Central Park jogger case was a criminal case based on the assault and rape of Trisha Meili, a white woman who was jogging in the park, and attacks on eight other persons in the North Woods of Manhattan's Central Park on the night of April 19, 1989. The attack on Meili resulted in her being in a coma for 12 days. Meili was a 28-year-old investment banker. The next year The New York Times described the attack on her as "one of the most widely publicized crimes of the 1980s". Attacks in Central Park that night were allegedly committed by around 30 teenagers, and police attempted to apprehend suspects. Four African American teenagers and one Hispanic American teenager were taken into custody. After lengthy interrogations, the five teenagers were tried variously on charges of assault, robbery, riot, rape, sexual abuse, and attempted murder relating to the attack on Meili and others. Their prosecution was based primarily on confessions which they made during police interrogations, which in some cases proceeded without parents or counsel present. They each later withdrew these confessions, pleaded not guilty, and refused plea deals. DNA from semen samples found on, and close to the victim, did not match any of the accused, a fact which became known during the first trial. The five teenagers were convicted in 1990 by juries in two separate trials: three were tried in one trial and two in the other. Subsequently known as the Central Park Five, they received sentences ranging from 5 to 15 years. Four of the convictions were appealed, and the convictions were affirmed by appellate courts. The defendants served between 6 and 13 years in prison. Five other defendants were convicted for assaults or crimes against other victims that night. In 2001, Matias Reyes, a convicted murderer and serial rapist who was in prison, confessed to raping the jogger. His DNA matched samples found on and near the rape victim, and there was other confirmatory evidence. He said he committed the rape alone."The verdict", ABC Nightline, December 3, 2002 At the time of his confession, Reyes was already serving a life sentence for other crimes. He was not prosecuted for raping Meili, because the statute of limitations had passed by the time he confessed. In 2002, Robert Morgenthau, District Attorney for New York County, recommended that the convictions of the five men related to charges for the assault and rape of Meili and the attacks on others, be vacated. In this legal position, the parties are treated as though no trial has taken place. Their convictions were vacated in 2002, and the state withdrew all charges against them. In 2003 the five exonerated men sued New York City for malicious prosecution, racial discrimination, and emotional distress. Under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the city refused to settle the suits for a decade, because the city's lawyers believed that the city could win a court case. After Bill de Blasio was elected as mayor, he supported settling the case; the city settled with the five plaintiffs for $41 million in 2014. As of December 2014, the five men were pursuing an additional $52 million in damages from New York State in the New York Court of Claims. Accusations by Donald Trump On May 1, 1989, Donald Trump, a real estate magnate, called for the return of the death penalty in full-page advertisements published in all four of the city's major newspapers. Trump said he wanted the "criminals of every age" who were accused of beating and raping a jogger in Central Park 12 days earlier "to be afraid". The advertisement, which cost an estimated $85,000, said, in part, "Mayor Koch has stated that hate and rancor should be removed from our hearts. I do not think so. I want to hate these muggers and murderers. They should be forced to suffer ... Yes, Mayor Koch, I want to hate these murderers and I always will. ... How can our great society tolerate the continued brutalization of its citizens by crazed misfits? Criminals must be told that their CIVIL LIBERTIES END WHEN AN ATTACK ON OUR SAFETY BEGINS!" In a 1989 interview with CNN, Trump said to Larry King: "The problem with our society is the victim has absolutely no rights and the criminal has unbelievable rights" and that "maybe hate is what we need if we're gonna get something done."Kaczynski, Andrew & Jon Sarlin, Trump in 1989 Central Park Five interview: "Maybe hate is what we need", CNN (October 10, 2016). Lawyers for the five defendants said that Trump's advertisement had inflamed public opinion. After Reyes confessed to the crime and said he acted alone, one of the defendants' lawyers, Michael W. Warren, said, "I think Donald Trump at the very least owes a real apology to this community and to the young men and their families." Protests were held outside Trump Tower in October 2002 with protestors chanting, "Trump is a chump!" Trump was unapologetic, saying, "I don't mind if they picket. I like pickets." After the city announced in June 2014 that they would settle with the defendants for more than $40 million, Trump wrote an opinion article for the New York Daily News. He said the settlement was "a disgrace," and that the men were likely guilty: "Settling doesn't mean innocence. ... Speak to the detectives on the case and try listening to the facts. These young men do not exactly have the pasts of angels." According to defendant Yusef Salaam, writing in a 2016 article in The Guardian, Trump "was the fire starter", as "common citizens were being manipulated and swayed into believing that we were guilty." Salaam said his family received death threats after papers ran Trump's full-page ad. Attorney Warren in the same piece argued that Trump's advertisements played a role in securing conviction by the juries, saying that "he poisoned the minds of many people who lived in New York City and who, rightfully, had a natural affinity for the victim." He noted, "Notwithstanding the jurors' assertions that they could be fair and impartial, some of them or their families, who naturally have influence, had to be affected by the inflammatory rhetoric in the ads." When a similar attack took place soon after in Brooklyn on May 2, 1989,2 Men Get 6 to 18 Years for Rape in Brooklyn - The New York Times when a black woman was raped and thrown from the roof of a four-story building, the case received little media attention. After Trump learned of her case, he visited the victim in the hospital and promised to pay her medical expenses. It is not known whether Trump paid any money toward her expenses. In October 2016, when Trump campaigned for the presidency, he said that the Central Park Five were guilty and that their convictions should not have been vacated. Trump said to CNN: "They admitted they were guilty. The police doing the original investigation say they were guilty. The fact that that case was settled with so much evidence against them is outrageous. And the woman, so badly injured, will never be the same." The men of the Central Park Five criticized Trump for his statement,Patters, Brandon Ellington, Exclusive: Central Park Five Members Blast Trump for Insisting They're Guilty, Mother Jones (October 7, 2016). as did others, including U.S. Senator John McCain (R-Arizona), who said that Trump's responses were "outrageous statements about the innocent men in the Central Park Five case." He cited this as among his reasons to retract his endorsement of Trump.Fuller, Matt, John McCain Unendorses Donald Trump, Huffington Post (October 8, 2016). Salaam responded by saying that he had falsely confessed because of coercion, after having been mistreated by police while in custody, and deprived of food, drink, or sleep for over 24 hours. In popular media In 2019, Netflix released a miniseries entitled When They See Us based on the events of the case, which received critical acclaim upon its' release. References Category:1989 crimes in the United States Category:1989 in New York City Category:April 1989 events Category:Central Park Category:Crimes in New York City Category:Donald Trump controversies Category:False confessions Category:Incidents of violence against women Category:Overturned convictions in the United States Category:Race-related controversies in the United States Category:Race and crime in the United States Category:Rapes in the United States